Symfony ArrayCollection vs PersistentCollection - php

Question

As I understood when you query database by repository you get PersistentCollection and when your working with your entities you get ArrayCollection.
so consider I have one to many self referencing relation for my user entity.
and in my user entity I have a setChildren method which get ArrayCollection of users as argument .
<?php
namespace UserBundle\Entity;
use Abstracts\Entity\BaseModel;
use CertificateBundle\Entity\Certificate;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use EducationBundle\Entity\Education;
use LanguageBundle\Entity\Language;
use PostBundle\Entity\Post;
use ProfileBundle\Entity\Company;
use RoleBundle\Entity\Role;
use SkillBundle\Entity\Skill;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User\UserInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Validator\Constraints\UniqueEntity;
/**
* User
*
* #ORM\Table(name="users")
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="UserBundle\Repository\Entity\UserRepository")
* #UniqueEntity("email")
* #UniqueEntity("username")
*/
class User implements UserInterface
{
use BaseModel;
/**
* #var int
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="type", type="string", columnDefinition="ENUM('merchant', 'company', 'customer') ")
*/
private $type;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", unique=true)
* #Assert\NotBlank()
*/
private $username;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
* #Assert\NotBlank()
*/
private $email;
/**
* #var string
* #ORM\Column(type="string", nullable=true)
*/
private $avatar = null;
/**
* #var string
* #ORM\Column(type="string", nullable=true)
*/
private $cover = null;
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="PostBundle\Entity\Post", mappedBy="user", orphanRemoval=true, cascade={"persist", "remove"})
*/
private $posts;
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="EducationBundle\Entity\Education" , mappedBy="user" , orphanRemoval=true, cascade={"persist", "remove"})
*/
protected $educations;
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="SkillBundle\Entity\SkillUser" , mappedBy="user" , orphanRemoval=true, cascade={"persist", "remove"})
*/
protected $skills;
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="LanguageBundle\Entity\LanguageUser" , mappedBy="user" , orphanRemoval=true, cascade={"persist", "remove"})
*/
protected $languages;
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="ResumeBundle\Entity\Resume" , mappedBy="user" , cascade={"all"})
*/
protected $resumes;
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="CertificateBundle\Entity\CertificateUser" , mappedBy="user" , orphanRemoval=true, cascade={"persist", "remove"})
*/
protected $certificates;
/**
* #ORM\OneToOne(targetEntity="ProfileBundle\Entity\Company", mappedBy="user")
*/
protected $company;
/**
* #ORM\OneToOne(targetEntity="ProfileBundle\Entity\Customer", mappedBy="user")
*/
protected $customer;
/**
* #ORM\OneToOne(targetEntity="ProfileBundle\Entity\Merchant", mappedBy="user")
*/
protected $merchant;
/**
* #var string
* #Assert\NotBlank()
* #Assert\Length(min=4)
* #ORM\Column(name="password", type="string", length=255)
*
*/
private $password;
/**
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="RoleBundle\Entity\Role", inversedBy="users", cascade={"persist"})
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="user_role", joinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="user_id", referencedColumnName="id")}, inverseJoinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="role_id", referencedColumnName="id")})
*/
private $roles;
/**
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="UserBundle\Entity\User", inversedBy="children")
* #ORM\JoinColumn(name="parent_id", referencedColumnName="id", onDelete="SET NULL")
*/
protected $parent;
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="UserBundle\Entity\User", mappedBy="parent", orphanRemoval=true, cascade={"persist", "remove"})
*
*/
protected $children;
/**
* #var array
*/
public static $fields = [ 'email', 'username', 'id', 'avatar', 'cover', 'type'];
/**
* User Entity constructor.
*/
public function __construct(/*EncoderFactoryInterface $encoderFactory*/)
{
//$this->encoderFactory = $encoderFactory;
$this->posts = new ArrayCollection();
$this->skills = new ArrayCollection();
$this->languages = new ArrayCollection();
$this->certificates = new ArrayCollection();
$this->educations = new ArrayCollection();
$this->children = new ArrayCollection();
dump($this->children);
die();
}
/**
* #param User $user
* #return $this
*/
public function setParent(User $user)
{
$this->parent = $user;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return $this
*/
public function removeParent()
{
$this->parent = null;
return $this;
}
/**
* #param User $user
* #return $this
*/
public function addChild(User $user)
{
if(!$this->children->contains($user)){
$this->children->add($user);
}
return $this;
}
/**
* #param User $user
* #return bool
*/
public function hasChild(User $user)
{
return $this->children->contains($user);
}
/**
* #param User $user
* #return bool
*/
public function isChildOf(User $user)
{
return $user->getChildren()->contains($this);
}
/**
* #return ArrayCollection
*/
public function getChildren()
{
return $this->children;
}
/**
* #param User $user
* #return $this
*/
public function removeChild(User $user)
{
if($this->children->contains($user)){
$this->children->removeElement($user);
}
return $this;
}
/**
* #param ArrayCollection $users
* #return $this
*/
public function setChildren(ArrayCollection $users)
{
$this->children = $users;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return $this
*/
public function removeChildren()
{
$this->children->clear();
return $this;
}
/**
* #param ArrayCollection $certificates
* #return $this
*/
public function setCertificates(ArrayCollection $certificates)
{
$this->certificates = $certificates;
return $this;
}
/**
* #param Certificate $certificate
* #return $this
*/
public function addCertificate(Certificate $certificate)
{
if(!$this->certificates->contains($certificate))
$this->certificates->add($certificate);
return $this;
}
/**
* #param Certificate $certificate
* #return $this
*/
public function removeCertificate(Certificate $certificate)
{
if($this->certificates->contains($certificate))
$this->certificates->removeElement($certificate);
return $this;
}
/**
* #return $this
*/
public function removeCertificates()
{
$this->certificates->clear();
return $this;
}
/**
* #param ArrayCollection $skills
* #return $this
*/
public function setSkills(ArrayCollection $skills)
{
$this->skills = $skills;
return $this;
}
/**
* #param Skill $skill
* #return $this
*/
public function addSkill(Skill $skill)
{
if(!$this->skills->contains($skill))
$this->skills->add($skill);
return $this;
}
/**
* #param Skill $skill
* #return $this
*/
public function removeSkill(Skill $skill)
{
if($this->skills->contains($skill))
$this->skills->removeElement($skill);
return $this;
}
/**
* #return $this
*/
public function removeSkills()
{
$this->skills->clear();
return $this;
}
/**
* #param ArrayCollection $languages
* #return $this
*/
public function setLanguages(ArrayCollection $languages)
{
$this->languages = $languages;
return $this;
}
/**
* #param Language $language
* #return $this
*/
public function addLanguage(Language $language)
{
if(!$this->languages->contains($language))
$this->languages->add($language);
return $this;
}
/**
* #param Language $language
* #return $this
*/
public function removeLanguage(Language $language)
{
if($this->languages->contains($language))
$this->languages->removeElement($language);
return $this;
}
/**
* #return $this
*/
public function removeLanguages()
{
$this->languages->clear();
return $this;
}
/**
* #param ArrayCollection $posts
* #return $this
*/
public function setPosts(ArrayCollection $posts)
{
$this->posts = $posts;
return $this;
}
/**
* #param Post $post
* #return $this
*/
public function addPost(Post $post)
{
$this->posts->add($post);
return $this;
}
/**
* #param Post $post
* #return $this
*/
public function removePost(Post $post)
{
$this->posts->removeElement($post);
return $this;
}
/**
* #return $this
*/
public function removePosts()
{
$this->posts->clear();
return $this;
}
/**
* #param ArrayCollection $educations
* #return $this
*/
public function setEducations(ArrayCollection $educations)
{
$this->educations = $educations;
return $this;
}
/**
* #param Education $education
* #return $this
*/
public function addEducation(Education $education)
{
$this->educations->add($education);
return $this;
}
/**
* #param Education $education
* #return $this
*/
public function removeEducation(Education $education)
{
$this->educations->removeElement($education);
return $this;
}
/**
* #return $this
*/
public function removeEducations()
{
$this->educations->clear();
return $this;
}
/**
* Get id
*
* #return integer
*/
public function getId()
{
return $this->id;
}
/**
* #param integer $id
* #return $this
*/
public function setId($id)
{
$this->id = $id;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
public function getType()
{
return $this->type;
}
/**
* #param mixed $type
* #return $this
*/
public function setType($type)
{
$this->type = $type;
return $this;
}
/**
* Set email
*
* #param string $email
* #return User
*/
public function setEmail($email)
{
$this->email = $email;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return string
*/
public function getEmail()
{
return $this->email;
}
/**
* #param $username
* #return $this
*/
public function setUsername($username)
{
$this->username = $username;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
public function getUsername()
{
return $this->username;
}
/**
* #return array
*/
public function getRoles()
{
return ['ROLE_USER', 'IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY'];
}
/**
* #param $password
* #return $this
*/
public function setPassword($password)
{
//$password =$this->encoderFactory->getEncoder($this)->encodePassword($password, $this->getSalt());
$this->password = $password;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return string
*/
public function getPassword()
{
return $this->password;
}
/**
*
*/
public function getSalt()
{
return md5(sha1('somesalt'));
}
/**
*
*/
public function eraseCredentials()
{
}
/**
* #param $cover
* #return $this
*/
public function setCover($cover)
{
$this->cover = $cover;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return string
*/
public function getCover()
{
return $this->cover;
}
/**
* #param $avatar
* #return $this
*/
public function setAvatar($avatar)
{
$this->avatar = $avatar;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return string
*/
public function getAvatar()
{
return $this->avatar;
}
/**
* #param Role $roles
*/
public function addRoles(Role $roles)
{
$this->roles[] = $roles;
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
public function getRoles2()
{
return $this->roles;
}
/**
* #return array
*/
public function getRolesAsArray()
{
$rolesArray = [];
foreach ($this->getRoles2() as $role) {
$rolesArray[] = $role->getName();
}
return $rolesArray;
}
/**
* #return Company
*/
public function getCompany()
{
return $this->company;
}
/**
* #param Company $company
* #return $this
*/
public function setCompany(Company $company)
{
$this->company = $company;
return $this;
}
}
and this is what I want to do
$new_owner = $this->userRepository->findOneById($user_id, false);
$children = $old_owner->getChildren();
$old_owner->removeChildren();
$new_owner->setChildren($children);
and I get error which says :
Argument 1 passed to
Proxies__CG__\UserBundle\Entity\User::setChildren() must be an
instance of Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection, instance of
Doctrine\ORM\PersistentCollection given
should I change my type hint in setChildren method to PersistentCollection ??
or I need to totally change my approach?

Answer 1

Short answer:
/**
* #param Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection $users
* #return $this
*/
public function setChildren(Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection $users)
{
$this->children = $users;
return $this;
}
Explanation:
If you look deep into Doctrine Classes you will see the following structure:
Array collection is class that implements interface Collection:
class ArrayCollection implements Collection, Selectable
PersistentCollection is class that extentds AbstractLazyCollection:
final class PersistentCollection extends AbstractLazyCollection implements Selectable
but AbstractLazyCollection implements Collection:
abstract class AbstractLazyCollection implements Collection
So:
Collection is interface, that you should use in method setChildren().
This is because of doctrine use lazy loading - mechanism that allow to load not all properties, but only these, that are needed.
Similar question:
Doctrine manyToMany return PersistentCollection instead of ArrayCollection

Answer 2

In your typing add Collection $children
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection;
...
private ?Collection $children;
symfony: 5.3